57 pages • 1 hour read
Jeff HobbsThe Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League
Jeff HobbsNonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 2014A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 1Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 1: “Chapman Street”
Part 1, Chapter 1 Summary
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death, substance abuse, and racism.
Rob—whose full name was Robert DeShaun Peace—was born in June 1980. He grew up in East Orange, a suburb of Newark, New Jersey, where his mother, Jackie, lived with her parents and eight siblings.
East Orange had changed since the Peace family moved there in 1960. Then, the neighborhood primarily comprised working-class Italian immigrants, and the Peaces were one of only two black families. However, racial tension, culminating in riots in 1967, led to white families selling their homes. Newark also experienced a rise in unemployment during the 1970s as factories closed. By the time Rob was born, 89% of East Orange’s population was Black and living below the poverty line. Violent, drug-related crime was rife, and the region became known as “Illtown.”
In 1979, Jackie met Rob’s father, Robert “Skeet” Douglas. Carl, a close family friend who sold marijuana with Skeet, introduced the couple. Jackie was unimpressed by Skeet’s “smooth talk” but was surprised by his encyclopedic knowledge of historical figures. Nevertheless, she refused to marry him or move into his house on Pierson Street, even when Rob was born. Although Skeet avoided gang-related violence, Jackie feared his marijuana dealing would bring trouble to her door. She also wanted to raise Rob her way. Borrowing books from the library, she encouraged Rob’s early interest in books.
Rob idolized his father, and they shared a close physical resemblance. Believing that storybooks were a poor preparation for real life, Skeet taught his son how to box. He also took him around Newark to socialize. Rob’s talent for memorizing information was illustrated when he recited lines from books as well as the rap lyrics he heard in the neighborhood. When Rob was three, a kindergarten worker referred to him as “The Professor” due to his remarkable intelligence.
Rob attended Oakdale Elementary School, which was the local public school, but Jackie was unhappy with the teaching standards. She wanted to educate Rob privately, but her earnings as kitchen staff at St. Mary’s Hospital would not stretch to the expense. Skeet said Jackie was being “uppity” when she suggested sharing the cost of private school.
One day, Skeet’s house on Pierson Street burned down, and he moved to a rented apartment on Chestnut Street. In August 1987, he was arrested for the murder of two young women in his apartment building.
Part 1, Chapter 2 Summary
Skeet lived in apartment 2D on Chestnut Street, while sisters Charlene and Estella Moore lived in 2E with Charlene’s baby. The Moore sisters were shot in their apartment on the morning of Saturday, August 8, 1987, and their friend Georgianna Broadway was injured. Georgianna did not see the gunman. However, she identified Skeet, whom she had only met once, as the murderer, claiming she recognized his voice. Police officers searched Skeet’s empty apartment without a warrant, discovering “absolute squalor,” drug paraphernalia, and a gun holster under a pile of dirty clothes. On Sunday, August 9, 1987, Skeet was arrested in the apartment of his elderly friend, Irving Gaskins. The arresting police officers claimed to have found the murder weapon tucked in Skeet’s belt.
Skeet insisted on Rob visiting him in Essex County Jail despite Jackie’s reluctance. Rob believed his father’s claim that he was innocent, but Jackie was less sure.
Rob gained a reputation as a tough football player. One day, Jackie was called to Oakdale Elementary after Rob was in a fight in first grade. Rob revealed the boy had called him “a nerd.”
Skeet could not afford a lawyer and was denied a public defender when he failed to prove indigency. While appealing this decision, he had no legal representation for a year. Skeet finally gained a public defender after proving that his property on Pierson Street was a burnt-out shell. The trial finally began in September 1990, three years after the murder. Skeet claimed that this delay disadvantaged him as Irving Gaskins (who by this time had died) saw the police plant the murder weapon on him.
Jackie’s fear that Rob would be stigmatized due to his father’s trial proved unfounded. However, she was disturbed when Rob seemed proud of how people in the neighborhood praised Skeet, presenting him as a “victim of the white establishment” (45). Determined to send her son to private school, Jackie took night school classes and qualified as a kitchen supervisor, which came with higher pay. She also took a second job sweeping the floor of a hair salon. For two years, she and Rob mainly lived on rice and beans. By September 1990, Jackie had saved enough to send Rob to a private Catholic school.
Part 1, Chapter 3 Summary
Rob entered Mount Carmel Elementary School in fourth grade. The tuition accounted for a third of Jackie’s salary. Rob was quiet in class but stood out for wearing “boots with untied laces” (47). He earned top grades in all subjects.
During Skeet’s trial, Georgianna Broadway’s testimony was confused, and the jury took over a week to agree on a verdict. Nevertheless, he was found guilty and received a life sentence, leading Skeet to launch a series of appeals.
After Skeet’s conviction, Jackie bought Rob the first volume of the Encyclopedia Britannica. She saved to add new volumes whenever she could. Rob entered the school’s academic squads and won prizes. However, he did not tell his classmates that his father was in prison and became reclusive.
Jackie’s siblings left for better opportunities in other areas, leaving only her and Rob at the house with her parents. At the age of 11, Rob took on the role of “man of the house” (57), cooking meals for his mother and giving her half of the money he earned from odd jobs. Rob recorded all his earnings in a notepad.
Rob often read classics that explored the themes of “Man vs. Man and Man vs. Himself” (58), including William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, Jack London’s The Call of the Wild, John Steinbeck’s The Pearl, and Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. His attention span was exceptional, and he excelled in math and science. However, teachers suspected that Rob was using a calculator for math, as he ignored instructions to show his workings, believing this was a waste of time. Jackie convinced Rob to do as he was asked, and he began producing lengthy notes in the margins for his teachers. Despite his academic excellence, Rob did not seem pleased when his work was praised, aware that being a “nerd” was an undesirable attribute in Newark. He navigated different identities, switching from an exceptional student at school to Skeet’s streetwise son as he walked home in his pink school uniform. Rob called this transformation “Newark-proofing” himself” (64).
Rob often bonded with other fatherless boys in the neighborhood, such as Victor Raymond. Victor’s parents died when he was 11, and he lived with his aunt. Rob befriended Victor and helped him study. Rob was a good listener and a natural leader, he was often called on by teachers to resolve pupil conflict. He began going by the name “Shawn.”
At the age of 13, Rob began drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana, which was standard behavior in his neighborhood’s “stoop culture.” He was often offered these intoxicants by his father’s friends and discovered they made him feel more relaxed. Victor was puzzled by the pride Rob took in knowing adults who sat on their porches drinking and smoking all day. He was also surprised at how successfully Rob hid his habits from his mother and grandparents. Nearing the end of their time at Mount Carmel, Rob and Victor successfully applied to St. Benedict’s, an all-boys private high school that largely comprised Black and Hispanic students.
Part 1 Analysis
At the opening of the memoir, while recounting the day of Rob Peace’s birth, Hobbs establishes his novelistic style. While the memoir is based on facts, it prioritizes storytelling and characterization, which are usually associated with fiction. Hobbs also interweaves important historical and sociological context, highlighting the importance of geographical setting on Rob’s life story. The author outlines how Newark underwent a significant demographic change in the two decades preceding Rob’s birth. Describing the “white flight” that occurred after the 1967 race riots, Hobbs describes how the neighborhood of East Orange transformed from a multicultural working-class area into an impoverished and crime-ridden community. The nickname “Illtown,” with its connotations of disease, hints at the unemployment, extreme poverty, and violent crime that characterized the region.
The first chapters introduce the theme of The Impact of Environment and Upbringing on Personal Outcomes. Hobbs highlights the opposing values of Rob’s parents, Jackie and Skeet, which play a vital role in Rob’s formative years. Jackie and Skeet have conflicting ideas about “what kind of man they wanted their son to be” (16). Jackie hopes that her son’s intelligence will empower him to leave the neighborhood. Her belief that knowledge is the gateway to opportunity and escape is illustrated in the encyclopedias she buys for her Rob. She views Newark as a place that limits the aspirations of young people, dooming them to become “loiterers and hustlers” (33). In contrast, Skeet feels affection and pride for Newark and its people means—he sees nothing wrong with his son remaining there. Consequently, he encourages Rob to be sociable and also trains him to protect himself physically, believing that these attributes will help him to survive and thrive in the neighborhood. Skeet’s accusation that Jackie’s aspirations for Rob are “uppity” demonstrates how, in their neighborhood, the desire to escape is considered disloyal.
Rob absorbs both his parents’ conflicting values, which is illustrated by his memorization of lines from the books Jackie reads to him and the rap lyrics he hears while out with Skeet. The contrast between the innocent, imaginative content of children’s storybooks and the violent and sexual rap lyrics highlights the incompatibility of his parents’ views. This duality persists into Rob’s teens as he excels academically but also immerses himself in the “stoop culture” of Newark, smoking marijuana and drinking with his father’s friends. Both sides of Rob’s character are reflected in the various names associated with him. The kindergarten worker’s reference to him as “the Professor” highlights his bookish traits, which are nurtured by Jackie. However, Rob’s decision to go by the name “Shawn” conveys the streetwise persona he wishes to convey.
Rob’s process of “Newark-proofing” himself reflects his belief that appearing and acting street-smart is a necessary tactic for survival. As a young boy, Rob likes reading books that feature the theme of “Man vs. Himself” (58); the “fracturing” impact of adopting dual identities in his own life leads him to empathize with characters in books who face similar struggles. The memoir explores the theme of Education as a Pathway to Opportunity and Isolation, showing how Rob’s private school education opens up his horizons but distances him from his roots. His desire to dispel the perception of him as scholarly is demonstrated in his fight with a boy who calls him a “nerd” and by his embarrassment at being publicly praised by teachers. Rob believed that, in Newark, intellectualism carries a stigma far greater than his father’s imprisonment.
Skeet’s arrest and imprisonment are presented as significant formative events in Rob’s life. His father’s absence means that “the nerd” in Rob is “permitted to flourish unbridled beginning at age seven” (60). However, the loss of his father also causes Rob profound emotional trauma. Hobbs says that Rob is drawn to math and science, with their “hard conclusions [and …] known variables” (59), as they offer the certitude that his early life lacks. Furthermore, Rob’s adopts the role of “man of the house” at the age of 11 (57), taking on the burden of adult responsibilities to fill the void left by Skeet.
Other traits of Rob’s character emerge in these early chapters and continue into adulthood. For instance, his initial refusal to show his math workings, despite teachers’ instructions, demonstrates his reluctance to toe the line and conform to others’ expectations. While illustrating his authenticity, this characteristic hampers Rob from progressing in later life. However, at this stage, Jackie still has sufficient parental power to influence her son. Also evident in Rob’s early relationships is his empathy and compassion for others. His willingness to listen to the problems of others and try to help them becomes a lifelong attribute.
Unlock all 57 pages of this Study GuidePlus, gain access to 9,100+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features: